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The 38-13 defeat of the University of Wisconsin in Michigan was a memorable one. It was an offensive nonsense – a low point for a unit that entered the season with the hope of being one of the best in the school.
In reality, a handful of games in the passing game may have changed the course of their performances. While a meaningless touchdown has slightly increased the number, UW averaged more yards per game on Saturday (5.78) than last year's win over Michigan, and even victory over the team. Last year's Orange Bowl, described as offensive offensive, paved the way for a promising 2018.
It may not have seemed like the countdown started from scratch, but the Badgers ran the ball pretty effectively all night long. They averaged 6.3 yards per race, a figure that goes up to 7.5 without the two sacks and Alex Hornibrook's slam.
UW's offensive line did not dominate the same way as against Nebraska – which would not just happen against that Michigan front, regardless of Rashan Gary's commitment – but Jonathan Taylor had margin to get several decent gains.
That's why the Badgers found themselves in a third and a three or less at six of their 11 races Saturday – a place where this offense generally thrives. UW only converted two of those six and finished the night at 0 for 9 on third tries that required more than 1 yard to win. Hornibrook moved back nine times out of eleven on the third run, despite the short distance covered in many cases, and the only one that led to the first run came in that final touchdown.
The passing game simply did not succeed, and its inefficiency destroyed assets that had started with encouraging gains on the ground.
You can not blame a single person or a group of posts. It starts with Hornibrook, who played one of the worst games of his career. He completed 7 of 20 passes for 100 yards with two interceptions and touched AJ Taylor in the final minutes.
There have been a few cases where the offensive line has given him enough time to launch, the intended target has created a bit of space and Hornibrook has just missed the target.
The Hornibrook interceptions, which led directly to 10 points in Michigan, were mental errors.
On the first one, it seems that he first read a man's cover while the Wolverines were in the cover 2. If they were in man, Pryor would have traced the outside corner further and left a lot of space to AJ Taylor to catch this pass. Instead, he led Taylor directly into the defender.
"I should have seen it," Hornibrook said. "They were just playing at Cover 2, so I should not have done that, I knew when I had it on hand, it was just a stupid decision."
On the sixth choice of Hornibrook, Michael Deiter moves away from the left side to sell the UW stock. Looks like Tyler Biadasz is behind the move after Michigan's predefined move ended with Chase Winovich opening fire at the last minute.
This caused quite immediate pressure on Hornibrook, and he may not have noticed that Lavert Hill was drifting in this space as he took a shot. A retransmission of the TV show showed that having a little more luck in the pass could have generated a considerable gain for the half-tight Luke Benzschawel.
This does not excuse the mistake. It is a costly mistake that ended any hope of returning to UW.
Although frustration with the quarter-end game on Saturday makes sense, Jack Coan fans will not be justified yet. Hornibrook played well in the first five games of the season and it may be misguided to assume that Coan would have done better against one of the best defenses in the country.
The attempt to redshirt Coan also complicates things if UW actually believes that a change could benefit the offense. Hornibrook will have his chance to bounce back and history tells us that he will do it.
As I said earlier, pass failures should not all fall on Hornibrook. He did not always have the protection he needed and many of these problems were related to communication between UW offensive linemen.
These misunderstandings are not solely due to the confusion that Michigan often tries to create. Take this third bag in the video below, for example. This Wolverines blitz is nothing special, but the Badgers leave a free linebacker when they do not need to.
The Badgers will probably not face a better defense this season, but many of their problems were theirs. This is a reason to be encouraged by what we have seen since the game in progress since the week off, but the passing game must become more consistent so that UW has a real chance to play Penn State and Big game. Ten.
– Andrew Van Ginkel looked much healthier on Saturday. By Pro Football Focus, he played 52 shots compared to the 33 he saw against Nebraska last week.
He and other UW linebackers were also subject to mental errors. They were often forced to crash into the line of scrimmage during play games, allowing the quarterback to sneak up for big wins. The first two videos below in particular were crucial pieces of the game.
Michigan had not shown a lot of play options before this game. The Badgers did not seem at all prepared for that and did not adjust well once Patterson took his 81-yard initial reading option to start the second quarter.
– UW's shorthanded high school played very well on Saturday, and I do not think the Badgers fans need to watch the game a second time to get excited about Reggie Pearson's future.
Look where the real first-year player is when this game is transferred – about 11 yards from the line of scrimmage – and yet he's still flying to make a big shot for a 1-yard gain.
Of course, he also did another spectacular game to force a breakaway to the line of scrimmage on both the first and third goals in the Wolverines' first half-time training – a big moment before the brutal coach.
Pearson has taken some mediocre angles in this game and has not been tested as much on the cover. However, he made all the first impression and could certainly compete to become D'Cota Dixon's substitute in the starting lineup next season.
By the way, I did not understand at first that César Williams played Saturday before he noticed the cornerback in the fourth quarter when I watched the game again. I am very curious to see what this rotation of the cornerback looks like once everyone is in good health.
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